On Tuesday the 30th of March I observed together with a fellow observer who just lives down the road. He owns several telescopes but tonight we tested the Skywatcher 10-inch newton on an equatorial mount. We compared views of the moon, planets and some deepsky objects, using different eyepieces. We also took some pics of the moon and saturn. I will post a bigger lunar image next week in the solar system section. Here is a first unprocessed image we took with the Nikon Coolpix 4500, a Vixen Lanthanum 25mm eyepiece and the 10-inch Skywatcher telescope.

Last night I observed a few deepsky objects with a fellow observer, Joop Wiersma, using his 12-inch f /4 Orion Optics UK Newton on a home-build Dobson mount. The conditions where terrible. We had sky-glow right into the zenith, due to the moist atmosphere. We still enjoyed viewing some deep sky objects from

my light-polluted backyard. We started of with M51 and NGC 5195 in Canes Venatici. Both the cores, and a part of the disk of M51 where visible with direct vision. With averted vision the beginning of a spiral arm could be detected. Next on the list was M3, a beautiful globular cluster, again in Canes Venatici. It was very easy to spot. Just move in a straight line from Arcturus to Alpha Canum Venaticorum. Just before you cover the distance half way, you should be able to spot M 3 through the finder as a faint smudge of light. The cluster was very well resolved, almost right to the middle, using a 7mm Nagler.

After M 3 we went for another globular cluster, the most spectacular for many observers on the northern hemisphere, M 13 in Hercules. This one really looked beautiful. Again with the 7mm Nagler, the globular cluster was almost resolved completely right into the core. There where several larger chains of stars visible, sticking out of the globular like “spider legs”. With my 8-inch, I only see a few of these spider legs under very good observing conditions (from my backyard). We ended our short observing session around 0:30 UT with M 57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra. What I noticed was the the area within the ring itself is sort of grey or white, but still appears slightly transparent. With my 8 inch I only see the ring itself.

For me it was the first time I could observe from my own backyard with a larger telescope. I hope to try it again under some better conditions in the next few months!

Tonight I observed Jupiter. The 4 big Moons all could be seen on one side of Jupiter. Even at low magnification I could detect see Jupiter divided into 7 different zones and bands.......follow this link to read the full story

On March 17th 2004 I started my observing session with Saturn about 19.00hrs UT from my own backyard. The seeing was great. It had been 20 degrees Celsius all day and I .....follow this link to read the full story

There is tons of astronomy software available through the internet, freeware, shareware and commercial software. Whether you are looking for a planetarium for your computer, or some software to plan and log your deepsky observing sessions, it’s all available. Follow this link to “Astronomy Software", a site with more than 200 links to various programs for Windows, Mac, Unix and other platforms.